Summary: Israel depart from Sinai in obedience to Moses and the LORD (10:11-13)…..Foreigners were also on this wilderness march (10:29-32)…..Grumbling brings a fiery response (11:1-3)…..They tire of God provided manna, instead hunger for good, old Egyptian cuisine (11:10-15)…..Moses is overwhelmed by complaints and solicits committee help (11:16-25)…..Miriam and Aaron have their doubts about Moses (12:1-2), Miriam is punished for her trouble (12:10-15)…..Spies are sent to explore Canaan (13:1-20)…..They report – strong people, walled cities, and giants (13:26-33)…..Israel no longer complains against the LORD, now they complain against it’s leaders (14:1-4)…..God interprets the rejections of His leads as a rejection of Himself and threatens judgement (14:11-12)…..Moses wins a pardon for Israel at the cost of 40 years of wandering (14:20-38) and foreign militia attacks (14:39-45).
Commentary: As is typical with human enterprises, our story starts well ordered and ends in bedlam once again confirming the validity of Entropy > 0…..It seems, based on my living experiences, that more complaints are registered “on the road” compared to the home front…..There’s something exciting but also unsettling about the road…..Their appetite for the onions, garlic, etc. of the earth rather than divinely provided fare is a reflection of Israel’s spiritual condition…..Even the provided quail BBQ (11:31-32) did little to satisfy Israel…..This whole episode is explained by Israel’s lack of faith which seems incredible given what they had physically experienced with God to get them to this point (read: Exodus!)…..Israel’s unbelief appears as an example elsewhere in our Bible (14:22-38, cp. Deut. 1:19-40, 1 Cor. 10:1-5, Heb. 3:12-19)…..Apparently seeing and experiencing is not believing…..Believing is believing…..Are we any different?
First Pres Joliet 
May 31, 2017 at 6:55 am
C.R. I believe the one aspect of truly believing is that God himself has to call a person. Romans 9 perhaps teaches a doctrine of God’s sovereignty to select, or call certain peoples. The Apostle Paul writes in most of his greetings to the churches Gal. 1.6 saints that are called, or I Cor. 1.2 saints by calling, Eph. 1.4 He chose us in Him, Ro. 1.6 you also who are the called, II These. 1.11 worthy of His calling. At least God himself has to initiate the process of believing, When Isaiah in chapter 6 describes being in God’s throne room and at his first sight of Yahweh he sees His majesty, but then realizes the miserable state of who he is, and has to look away until he is cleansed by the burning coal. A picture of our own blindness, until we see the LORD, then our eyes are open to His spiritual salvation. Not just words but spiritual awareness, a calling.
June 1, 2017 at 9:40 am
Karl, your “spiritual awareness” may be a very subtle act; no thunder & lightening or fire & brimstone in it. I’m leaving open the possibility He’s always there (Luke 24:13-32), waiting to be recognized. Even the recognition may be subtle. Why is it that some recognize while others don’t? Something so simple apparently isn’t, how does the salvation process really work? No one can say other than I’m confident that if we do our part, God’s Spirit will do His – it takes both.